Locus coeruleus imaging as a biomarker for noradrenergic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases
Publication: Brain A Journal of Neurology
Matthew J Betts, Evgeniya Kirilina, Maria C G Otaduy, Dimo Ivanov, Julio Acosta-Cabronero, Martina F Callaghan, Christian Lambert, Arturo Cardenas-Blanco, Kerrin Pine, Luca Passamonti, Clare Loane, Max C Keuken, Paula Trujillo, Falk Lüsebrink, Hendrik Mattern, Kathy Y Liu, Nikos Priovoulos, Klaus Fliessbach, Martin J Dahl, Anne Maaß, Christopher F Madelung, David Meder, Alexander J Ehrenberg, Oliver Speck, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Raymond Dolan, Ben Inglis, Duygu Tosun, Markus Morawski, Fabio A Zucca, Hartwig R Siebner, Mara Mather, Kamil Uludag, Helmut Heinsen, Benedikt A Poser, Robert Howard, Luigi Zecca, James B Rowe, Lea T Grinberg, Heidi I L Jacobs, Emrah Düzel, Dorothea Hämmerer
1 September 2020
Pathological alterations to the locus coeruleus, the major source of noradrenaline in the brain, are histologically evident in early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. Novel MRI approaches now provide an opportunity to quantify structural features of the locus coeruleus in vivo during disease progression.
In this article, the researchers present a consensus on how non-invasive in vivo assessment of locus coeruleus integrity can be used for clinical research in neurodegenerative diseases.
They outline the next steps for in vivo, post-mortem and clinical studies that can lay the groundwork to evaluate the potential of locus coeruleus imaging as a biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases.